City crews work to pull a Public Works truck out of a sink hole in February 2011. A spokesman said a damaged water main had eroded the soil under the street, which collapsed as the 7-ton truck carrying asphalt was backing up. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle )

Photo: Karen Warren

City crews work to pull a Public Works truck out of a sink hole in...

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Exposed rods and deteriorating concete betray the age of the Yale Street Bridge, built in 1931.

Photo: Tony Bullard

Exposed rods and deteriorating concete betray the age of the Yale...

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Construction work on the Grand Parkway State Highway 99 continued last December. Roads received a D+ grade in a new Houston infrastructure report. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle )

Engineers gave Houston-area infrastructure a passing grade Tuesday, but it wasn't a report card to make a parent - or a taxpayer - beam with pride.

The American Society of Civil Engineers Houston branch assessed the structural and economic viability of roads, transit, solid waste, wastewater and drinking water facilities.

Drinking water systems received a D, and roads and highways got a D+. Bridges, flood control and transit scored a C-, while solid waste received a C and heavy rail systems - freight rail and Amtrak - a C+.

The report is the first local assessment done by a Texas branch of the national engineering society. Houston is the 11th region nationally to look at local infrastructure. Most regions fared slightly better than Houston, with most categories in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, for example, receiving B and C grades.

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The report card

In its first infrastructure report on the Houston area, the local chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers gave mostly low marks for the quality and future outlook for roads and utility systems in eight categories:

Breaking down the grades

A closer look at the marks given by the local chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers in its first infrastructure report on the Houston area:

C-Bridges: Metro Houston has 11 percent of the state's bridges, but their quality fares worse than most Texas spans. Only 67.5 percent of the bridges are rated "good" or better, compared to 80.3 percent statewide.

DDrinking water: The area has rights to enough water to last until 2060, including estimated population increases. But the system that delivers that water is cracking and falling apart, and there's no plan to pay for the improvements.

C-Flood control: Houston's population is expected to increase by 70 percent in the next 40 years. To keep up with that growth, $2 billion in drainage improvements are needed, more than city programs plan for.

C+Rail: Along 800 miles of main line track, about 2,200 trains a day carry freight to and from the region. That amount is expected to double in less than 25 years, with limited room for growth at the area's privately run railroad yards.

D+Roads and highways: The region's population is estimated to grow by 3 million people in just over 20 years. But gas taxes, which pay for most roads, are declining because of better fuel efficiency, setting up a funding challenge.

CSolid waste:Houston has plenty of landfill space to accommodate future growth. But local residents generate 20 percent more trash than the national average, driving up disposal costs.

C- Transit: As more people move to the area and work in large urban centers, transit will carry more of the commuting burden. But a lack of cohesive connections means a lot of investment is needed to carry that load.

AWastewater: Two decades of investment have paid off with a system in which 98 percent of the facilities met or exceeded the criteria the engineers set for condition and resilience of the system.

Houston drinking water systems in particular are behind on needed maintenance, said Clay Forister, chairman of the engineering society committee that produced the report.

"I think everyone remembers last summer and all the water-main breaks," Forister said, referring to the drought-related line failures around Houston, which peaked at 1,000 in a single day in August 2011.

A "staggering" three-quarters of the breaks occurred on water lines that are more than 30 years old, he said.

The low marks are based on analysis of the systems' ability to provide service now and in the future, along with plans to maintain and fund future needs for wider roads, additional buses and trains and expanded sewer and water lines.

"A low grade does not mean it is unsafe, but rather, that it is woefully outdated and has no plan in place," said Clark Barrineau, a Washington spokesman for ASCE.

The assessments indicate Houston has serious funding needs and officials must consider how to invest, said City Councilwoman Melissa Noriega.

"We need to have the conversation with the facts and reality," Noriega said. "There isn't any infrastructure fairy who says 'Poof, you have a bridge.' "

Future demand is great, the report found. The combined population of Harris, Galveston, Brazoria, Fort Bend, Waller, Montgomery, Liberty and Chambers counties is expected to grow by 3 million, to 8.8 million, by 2035, the engineers said.

Without improvements, the 422 miles of local highways will not accommodate that growth, and water and sewer plants will strain to serve an increasing number of people.

The report card considers programs like ReBuild Houston, a plan to spend $125 million annually to address street and drainage issues. But with $5 billion worth of improvements needed, it would take 25 years just to construct identified upgrades.

Houston's leaders are capable of making a case for investment, said Councilman Stephen Costello, who is also an engineer and was a leader of the ReBuild Houston initiative.

Costello noted that voters approved $3 billion in local spending for various projects in the recent election, despite the lingering effects of the recent recession.

The only facet of local infrastructure to receive a high mark was wastewater, which engineers noted was a funding priority for city officials over the past 20 years.

Improving all of the systems will determine how the Houston area fares economically to lure new businesses and residents. Companies looking to move jobs to the area won't do so if highways are clogged, said David Ellis, a researcher at Texas A&M University's Texas Transportation Institute.

Houston has been "a victim of its own success" because of growth that has placed more demand on sewers, water lines and highways, he said.

"If you want to solve it, have a recession," Ellis said. "Then you'll have not near as many people on the freeways."